Washington Post Video

This week we’re highlighting the best video created by our VJs and producers in 2011. Each day we’ll be posting one video from each and all of our talented staff. Consider it a holiday gift from us to you! We’re kicking it off with stories uniquely Washingtonian—U Street, Arlington Cemetery, Mambo Sauce and even a trip to a Washington outside of the District, watch it all below: 

Night lives: Bob Taylor, nighttime photographer (by Evelio Contreras)

Bob Taylor, 81, carries a Polaroid camera near Adams Morgan and U Street bars on weekend nights. He does portrait shots for $5 and tells people why it’s important to “get a picture.”

Chess grandmaster plays 30 games simultaneously (by Ben de la Cruz and Puja Bhalerao)

Thirty students from the District, Maryland and Virginia played against Maurice Ashley, the first African-American chess grandmaster, at the same time. The exhibition was part of a fundraiser for the U.S. Chess Center in D.C.

The city’s sauce (by Whitney Shefte)

Mumbo sauce, also known as mambo sauce, can be found in carryout restaurants throughout Washington. It is a staple for many residents in D.C. and part of a completely unknown subculture to others.

A private car, with a private view (Produced by Kristen Boghosian)

Chuck Jensen is one of only a handful of people that own their own train car. He rents out the nearly century-old heavyweight Pullman observation car for private trips, but mostly uses it to vacation across the country with his family.

A catalog of grieving at Arlington Cemetery (by AJ Chavar)

The U.S. Army Center of Military History collects and catalogs items of interest left at graves in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery where soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. For the past two years, a team of U.S. Military curators visits the section every Wednesday to archive the mementos left on graves.

Shutdown averted (Produced by Jayne Orenstein)

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein talks about how the GOP and Democrats came to an agreement despite contentious rhetoric on both sides of the debt ceiling debate and how the United States was able to avoid default.

The View from Washington, Ga. (By Alexandra Garcia and Ben de la Cruz)

In Washington, a town of 4,000 in rural Georgia, the 2011 campaign for mayor became a contest rife with tension. (Photos)